Encounters and Conversations
by malko050987
Summary: Hermione sees Ginny in a private moment at Privet Drive, and it affects her in ways she doesn't understand.


**Encounters and Conversations**

_by malko050987_

**Summary:**_Hermione sees Ginny in a private moment at Privet Drive, and it affects her in ways she doesn't understand. _

**Notes:**_Story is Hermione/Ginny, but nothing actually happens as most of it is taken up by Harry and Hermione talking. My writing skills are rusty after a long time of not writing, so please excuse the crappiness. _

_--_

Hermione clutched a book to her chest as she walked through the darkened corridors of Grimmauld Place, searching for a quiet place where she could read undisturbed, and try to put her nerves to rest. Harry was arriving later that night and she was very worried about him. Again, like last year, she and Ron had been forbidden to write him, and she shuddered to think of what horrors he had faced, alone in that room at his wretched relatives.

"Please be alright, Harry," she whispered, tightening her grip on the book and looking at her surroundings.

The gas lamps in this corridor were covered in dust, so the light was barely enough to see by, and it only got darker, so she decided to turn back and go to her room. The noise from the kitchen could be heard there, which was the reason she'd left in the first place, but she'd deal with it, as always. However, as she turned to leave, the nearest door cracked opened and a sliver of light shone in the gloomy hall.

Cautiously, she approached the door and opened it a bit further, peeking inside. Hermione froze at the sight inside.

Ginny Weasley was stretched on the bed, shirtless. Her head was thrown back, her cheeks flushed. Her eyes were closed and her mouth was slightly opened as she panted. Only one hand was visible to Hermione, as Ginny touched her breasts, but she could clearly see the redhead's skirt move and knew where her other hand was.

Hermione had no idea how long she stood there, listening to Ginny's moans of pleasure, but only came to herself when Ginny opened her eyes and saw her. The younger girl shrieked and grabbed at the bedspread, covering herself.

Hermione gasped and tried to stutter and apology, but her mouth refused to obey her brain, and her vision was filled with the sight of Ginny's flushed cheeks and red lips. An instant later, she panicked, dropping her book in her haste to get away.

"Hermione? Hermione!"

Ginny's shouts followed her as she ran down the hall and then down the stairs, where a new voice greeted her.

"Hermione!"

Her smile was a bit insecure as she hugged Harry. "Harry! It's so good to see you!"

"It's good to see you too, Hermione, but I won't be seeing for much longer if you strangle me."

Blushing, she released him and stepped back. "Are you alright?"

He nodded, smiling gently at her. "Yes, this summer was much better than the last one." She noticed that he avoided looking at his surroundings very much, and couldn't help but hug him again, gentler than the last hug they'd shared.

"I'm sorry," she whispered in his ear. He tightened his hug for a second, showing he appreciated it, before stepping back and yawning.

"If you all don't mind, I'll go catch some sleep now. I haven't slept very much in the past two days."

A few minutes later, Hermione was hesitantly opening the room she and Ginny shared. She sighed in relief when she saw that the room was empty. Quickly, she changed for bed and settled under the covers, closing her eyes. Sleep was long in coming, and her dreams were filled with flushed cheeks and ruby lips.

--

Hermione kept her eyes on the ground as she entered the kitchen.

"Good morning, dear!"

"Good morning, Mrs. Weasley," she replied dutifully, sitting between Harry and Ron, in their usual seating arrangement. Ginny was on the other side of the table, next to Remus and Tonks. An empty plate marked Mrs. Weasley's spot. Hermione's eyes couldn't help but stop on Ginny for a few seconds, until the petite redhead saw her and blushed slightly.

Hermione ducked her head, feeling her face burn.

"'ornin'" Ron said from next to her and she swatted his arm out of habit.

"Ron, don't speak with your mouth full!" she hissed. He simply shrugged and returned to inhaling his food.

"Good morning, Hermione," Harry said from her right. "Everything alright?" he added in a whisper.

"Ye-yes, everything is fine," she replied in the same tone before quickly putting together a sandwich and eating it as fast as she could. That done, she excused herself and nearly ran from the room.

She headed straight for the library, seeking her usual source of comfort, but gave up after a few minutes of staring at a page without taking in anything. With a sigh, she put the book back in its place and returned to her seat on the couch, staring moodily at the rows of books.

--

"Hermione? Wake up, Hermione."

A hand was gently easing her out of sleep's embrace and she blinked in the dark. "Harry?" she asked, stretching briefly on the couch she had fallen asleep on, absently noting that somebody had covered her with a quilt.

He lifted her feet and sat on the other end of the couch, placing her feet in his lap and keeping a hand on them. Hermione was grateful that the dark in the room his her blush. It was a position she and Harry or Ron had been in pretty often while at Hogwarts, and she couldn't find a reason for blushing, but the heat in her face seemed to disagree.

"What's wrong, Hermione?" Harry asked, his voice soft.

She could see his eyes in the dark, two bright emeralds glinting in the night, and couldn't help but shiver slightly.

"It's nothing, really," she replied, inwardly wondering if her voice had really sounded that fake.

His chuckle answered her question. "If you can't talk to your best friend, who can you talk to, then?"

Although she generally agreed with that sentiment, she was definitely not going to confess that she had spied on Ginny in a very private moment, and she was definitely not going to talk about what had been happening since then.

"It's nothing, really. How come nobody woke me up?" she asked, desperately trying to change the subject.

Teeth shone briefly as he grinned at her, and she knew that she was caught. "You fell asleep here at some point in the morning, and we didn't find out until after lunch. Ron wanted to wake you up, but Ginny said you didn't get much sleep the previous night, so we left you to sleep."

Her breath caught in her throat. "Ginny?"

He chuckled again. "Yes, Ginevra Molly Weasley. She's the one that brought this quilt and covered you, actually. Me and Ron are too male to think of stuff like that."

His last remark startled a giggle out of her, before she blushed heavily at the thought of Ginny tucking the quilt around her._ 'What is happening to me?'_

"And she also gave me this book to return to you," Harry said, reaching to a nightstand and handing over a book. She didn't have to glance at it to know it was the one she'd been carrying when she's seen Ginny. Wordlessly, she took it from his hand and placed it on the small table next to her end of the couch.

After a few minutes of silence, Harry began rubbing her feet, something he had never done before, and she lost herself in the new sensations.

"What do you know about life-debts?"

His question startled her, but she wasn't Hermione Granger for nothing. "A life-debt incurs when a witch or wizard saves the life of another witch or wizard without expecting a reward. A connection is born between the two persons involved, and it exists until the debt is satisfied, even carrying over to the next generation." she recited instantly.

"Very good," he said. "But not completely right. What you described is a wizard's debt. It's pretty much what you said, except that the connection doesn't carry over to the next generation.

"Now, a life-debt is much more than that, and they are also a lot rarer."

He was silent for a few seconds before continuing. "What do you know about fairy tales?"

She frowned at the change in subject. "Well, I've read a lot of them when I was younger, but what do they have to do with life-debts?"

"Didn't you wonder if those fairy tales were inspired from events in the wizarding world? Especially the 'hero saves damsel from dragon' types?"

"Well, not really. I mean, a dragon takes ten adult wizards to subdue, and they rarely eat humans, preferring other prey. And you still haven't explained what this has to do with life-debts."

"Well, let me see if I can give you a definition of life-debt. One of them will occur when a wizard saves another one from a non-human force stronger than they are, without thoughts of reward and at great risk to themselves."

"Like the troll in our first year?"

"Well, not quite. I was the one risking my life there, while Ron took it down. So you probably owed him a wizard's debt at one point, but it should be gone by now, with all the help you've given us both."

She thought about it for a minute. "Like the debt Snape owes your father?"

He nodded. "I'm not certain it was a true wizards debt, since I don't think my father risked his life there. He was used to spending time with Moony in the Shack, so he probably just threw Snape out of the way and turned into Prongs, who was more than a match to Moony."

"And what's this got to do with princesses and dragons?"

"Life-debts will form a connection between the two involved. When the adventurer kills the dragon and saves the princess, the connection is formed, and it cannot be broken."

"What sort of connection? And how come you know so much about it?" she inquired. This wasn't the Harry of two weeks ago, depressed and angry. He still looked as if he had the weight of the world on his shoulders, but he seemed ready to deal with it now, and his attitude had changed now. He was openly affectionate with his friends, as the foot massage she was getting proved. She'd also noticed that he was more open in conversations now, not as shy as before.

"A connection that will ultimately drive the two souls of the people involved together. And I know about it because I'm part of one."

She gaped at him for almost a full minute before it hit her. "Ginny!"

He grinned. "Yes, Ginny."

She digested the information for a few minutes before. "What sort of connection are we talking about, Harry? And what did you mean by drawing the souls of the people involved together?"

"Well, you know how in all those fairy tales the adventurer got the princess as his bride, and half the kingdom and such rot?" At her nod, he went on. "Basically, it was because when you save somebody's life like that, you're effectively placing yourself in front of Death, hiding their soul with yours. The connection tries to enforce a closeness between the two souls so Death doesn't get the rescued soul earlier then it should. And in most cases, the people involved are not family and are in similar age groups, so they end up married. It's really rare these days, though. I think the last such couple were Nicholas Flamel and his wife."

"So you and Ginny will get married?" she asked, trying to stem the flow of emotion inside her, emotions she didn't recognize and frightened her.

"No, we could never do that!" he laughed.

"What? But you said..."

He nodded. "I know what I said. But while the connection will bring us closer and closer until it's satisfied, it will not force us to love each other in that way, or prevent us from developing feelings for somebody."

"Oh," she whispered, trying to figure out why she felt so good at hearing that Ginny will not be marrying Harry.

"Ginny and I weren't aware of the connection before last year, when it kicked in. The two of us started by always knowing in which general direction the other is, and now we can communicate mentally, in images only so far, but it will probably move over into words in a few months." He leaned so he was closer to her face and his voice dropped. "For the past two months, I've also been able to feel anything Ginny feels."

She stared at him uncomprehendingly for a few instants, then blushed heavily and hid her face in her hands.

"I don't understand what the big deal is about this, Hermione. Sure, you caught her doing something she would have liked to have privacy for, you it's not like you did anything to her, and you two are best friends, I'm sure that an apology will fix it."

She frowned at him for a few seconds, looking for any deceit in his gaze, but it was just Harry, her best friend, who would gladly put his life on the line for her, who trusted her with anything, and who had seen so many horrors it would drive most people insane.

With a deep breath, she began to tell him about not being able to stop thinking about Ginny, and how whenever she saw the redhead, her mind would flash to the memories of the night. Her voice trailed off as she said that, and she wanted to bash her head on a wall.

"I've got a crush on Ginny!" she whispered, panic settling in. "What sort of person am I? I like boys, I even snogged Viktor, I have a crush on Ron, not on Ginny!"

It was only Harry's grip on her feet that kept her from starting to pace.

"Hermione, relax," he said gently. "Breathe, don't forget to breathe." It took her a few minutes, but she got her breath under control. "Now, what's so wrong about you having a crush on Ginny?"

"I don't like girls that way," she said in a small voice, knowing it was a lie as soon as she said it. By the look on his face, Harry knew it as well.

She sighed resignedly. "Okay, so I am bisexual and I have a crush on Ginny." She couldn't believe how good saying it felt. She turned and gave Harry a big hug. "Thank you," she whispered.

"You're welcome."

She snuggled deeper in Harry's arms, forcing him to stretch on the couch and resting her head on his chest. "What will happen with you and Ginny?"

"I don't know. I do know that she and I will be close for the rest of our lives, and either live together or be neighbors."

"And not get married?"

He chuckled, the sounds resonating in his chest. "No, we're far too much alike for that. She has the potential to be my closest friend, but there isn't any spark between us, and my love for her is purely platonic."

"Oh. Does Ginny like girls?"

She could feel his grin. "She's not adverse to giving it a try."

Hermione allowed herself to imagine what dating Ginny would be like, and fell asleep with a smile on her face. Harry waved his wand and the quilt was wrapped around them. Once that was done, he directed his attention to the place in the back of his mind that was occupied by Ginny, and sent her the impressions of his talk with Hermione. He received gratitude, tinged with a bit of apprehension about the morning to come.

FIN

A/N: Rather strange, and it shows that I took a lengthy break from writing. Let me know if you enjoyed it anyway. I haven't proofread it, just ran it through a spellcheck, so I'd appreciate it if you point out any mistakes that you see.


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